Cheatography
https://cheatography.com
Be able to:
- Identify research topics that are suited for survey research.
- Explain key rules for asking questions in a survey
- Discuss key concerns in the construction of a survey questionnaire.
- explain steps involved in the execution of all type of surveys.
- Discuss advantages and disadvantages of different survey research methods
- Understand which research projects are most suitable for each survey method.
- Explain secondary analysis and its key advantages and disadvantages.
This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.
purposes of survey research
- exploratory: e.g. what are the general views of the dutch on sending weapons on Ukraine?
- descriptive: e.g. what percentage of the dutch population supports sending tanks to Ukraine and what percentage supports sending fighter jets?
- explanatory: e.g. what are decisive factors that make the dutch supporting sending weapons to Ukraine?
→ these questions inquire after opinions of a large group of people or a population; a survey offers an overview of the population
→ the latter 2 are most often used; they test hypotheses based on underlying theories |
conducting survey research does not necessarily mean you have to collect data yourself; you can also perform a secondary analysis (=the data collected and processed by one researcher is reanalysed for a different purpose by another)
characteristics of a survey
- use large scale sample from a population
- using standardised questions
- mostly close-ended questions
- data are processed statistically
surveys capture:
- opinions
- orientations
- attitudes
→ of large populations by interviewing individual respondents |
|
|
survey questions
can be:
- open-ended: respondent’s own answer
- close-ended: predefined answers → must be exhaustive and exclusive
the quality of survey research depends on the quality of the questions
criteria:
- clear + precise
- unambiguous + not double-barrelled
- relevant → Responders must be competent to answer
- unbiased → they should not contain biased terms
- they should not refers to norms |
survey methods
four main methods of administering survey questions:
- self-administered questionnaires: respondents have to fill out a copy of the questionnaire themselves (CASI)
- interview surveys: face-to-face, administered by an interviewer (CAPI)
- telephone surveys (CATI)
- online surveys (CAWI) |
|
|
advantages vs. disadvantages
methods |
advantage |
disadvantage |
self-administered |
• cheaper • less time consuming • more willingness to report controversial opinions • interviewers do not impact answers |
- lower response rates - higher risk of receiving incomplete questionnaires - no control over who fills in the questionnai |
interview |
• higher response rate • higher completion rate • more affective in addressing complicated issues • possibility of making additional observations • control over who answers the questions |
- expensive and time consuming - risk of compliance - less willingness to respond to sensitive issu |
strenghts and weaknessen
strengths:
- get a fairly accurate picture of large population
- can get data on large number of cases
- large number of questions on very different topics give flexibility in analyses
- standardised data allows you to compare different respondents
weaknesses:
- social context or life in which respondents act/think cannot be captured
- you cannot react to sudden changes in field or the life of respondents
- assigning respondents scores on the basis of standardised, close-ended questions may result in certain degree of superficiality
→ survey research is generally weak on validity (due to artificiality) and strong on reliability (due to standardised questions) |
|
